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Concrete Paper Towel Holder

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Puppies make such a mess that it can be insane! And it turns out that our little Carly is actually a little sick which is making her pee all of the time, and often without even realizing she’s doing it, poor thing. To be honest it was hard to notice there was a problem because puppies pee in the house when they are little. It’ just a part of having any kind of baby, you have to deal with the fact that you’re going to have to clean up pee and poop for a while.

But when she started peeing in her sleep and in places she never would have peed before (like in the bed and on the sofa) we realized there was a problem. So now miss lovely pants is on antibiotics and on her way to being a healthy pup once again and we’re really grateful for that…

But until these antibiotics start to do their thing I’m cleaning up messes every 20-30 minutes. And after you’ve stepped in puppy pee in bare feet several times in one day you start to get a weensy bit frustrated. And I was noticing that when I was running for a paper towel I was getting supremely frustrated because I’d try to quickly tear off a sheet or 2 only to have the holder tip over and go rolling across the counter top.

Now I LOVE my paper towel holder, aesthetically, at least… but dang if the thing wasn’t a total rip off. The chicken on top broke within a few days because we couldn’t get the rubber gasket thingie inside of it to stay inside of that chickenn it to keep it on the dowel. So that pretty little topper (and the reason why I wanted it in truth) was gone within days. Also the base is super lightweight and tips over at the slightest touch, making running for an emergency towel all the more frustrating.

So I decided to make my own heavy duty paper towel when I was trying to figure out a use for my ArtMinds Hexagon Stepping Stone kit I got for around $8 with my coupon at Michael’s. Now this is another product I wasn’t happy with. I bought it without paying attention to the size, only knowing that I had bought several kits the year before that I just loved. When I got it home I realized that

this kit was dinky and wouldn’t make much of a stepping stone

the concrete was white and I didn’t like that

didn’t have the pretty colors of glass and tile inside of it like on the box cover (mostly got brown and orange)

came with the wrong directions, in fact for the older version that I loved

Now the of the box shows the size and the fact that it is clearly white concrete but I didn’t notice that and that’s my bad. Now the ugly glass? That was just disappointing and the wrong directions, that’s a big problem. In fact, when I googled “ArtMinds stepping stone directions” I was brought to the Michael’s website where everyone was having stones that didn’t set up because the directions call for THREE cups of water when you should only use about ONE AND A QUARTER TO ONE AND A HALF cup of water. That’s a huge difference and that is something that really hacks me off. If you’re going to change a product so drastically from the previous year, pay to have somebody re-write the directions, umkay?

At any rate I didn’t want a tiny stepping stone and I couldn’t find my receipt to return it so I had an “aha moment” and now I have one pretty amazing paper towel holder that isn’t tipping over anywhere. I guess in the end I did just fine :)

Now one of the things I did like about this project was that you could mix the concrete up in a bag instead of digging out a bucket. Nifty. Now, if you use the ArtMinds Stepping Stone kit from Michael’s do NOT use 3 cups of water like the directions state… I used one and a quarter cups and the concrete came out thick and muddy and perfect. You just mix this business up in the bag, kneading it until the texture is all the same and empty it into your mold.

Leave the wet concrete it on a level surface to begin hardening.

Oh, and a quick tip… putting your mold on a cheapie cookie sheet makes it so much easier to transport around. I get mine for around $0.88 apiece at Walmart.

Feel the concrete occasionally and once it starts to set up to be firm to the touch, but you can still easily get something inside of it, push your down rod into the center. Now, you might want to make SURE it’s the center by looking at it from overhead. I didn’t so mine is kind of wonky :)

Use your finger to pus the concrete up and around the dowel and make it smooth. Be sure to wear gloves because I’ve been told wet concrete on skin can make you sick!

After the concrete completely hardens remove from the mold (it’s reusable so you can make a ton, huzzah!) and sand away any weird edges or imperfections with fine grit paper.

And that’s that, folks! Now I have a heavy weight DIY concrete paper towel holder and I’m am loving it. Little miss pees and I run to the kitchen yelling and don’t go chasing the paper towel holder across the counters, or even the floor :)

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